Last week, Amanda asked "What are you doing after work?".  I commented that I wanted to come back to that topic when I finished my next post and this is that follow-up.

I had two separate conversations recently and a common theme came up; that of becoming so good at or knowledgeable about something that you begin to have a "feel" for it. I think that this is a key concept that warrants some attention so that we can be aware of things that just may be our true purpose in life. I will begin with a couple of examples.

First, let's consider my friend John at work and his foundation fixer-upper. John had a problem with the foundation under his garage. Over many years, clay and frost had been putting pressure on his foundation and it needed to be fixed before it created real damage. After getting several views and quotes, John decided to bring back a contractor named Al, who had patched his foundation a few years back for another problem. Al (the fixer-upper) wasn't sure what the repair would require until he dug it out and had a look but he was confident that he could do a good job within my friend's budget.

As it turns out, Al, decided that he should build a parallel retaining wall underground to aid and support the original foundation. What got me was my friend's description of  Al's experience and skill, "he has real feel for this; he can just look at an issue and knows what he has to do". In my mind, as I listened to John, I came to believe that his contractor's experience was so vast in this area that he could "feel" the clay, the power of the frost, the decaying foundation and the support that it needed.

The next example comes through my brother Lark and a recent experience that his son Allan had with a client. Allan, a partner in a corporate law firm with about 10 years experience, told his dad about a client who was looking for some insight into a possible investment. Of course any detail of the client or the investment opportunity was left out since this was confidential. In his engagement, Allan was able to ask enough pointed questions to understand that the investment had far too much risk attached and he his advised his client of this concern. Allan mentioned to his dad that "I've seen enough of these now to have a feel for what is really going on behind the prospectus or business plan and it just didn't feel right for my client".

Lastly, a personal experience. As a backyard mechanic, I still do a few of my own repairs and as I take my car for a test-drive after the repair, I can almost feel the car's relief and comfort that its issue has been solved.

Of course, my car can't really feel, but I can, and through something like empathy, I "feel" that I achieve a kind of 'Vulcan mind meld' with my car that allows me to sense my car's satisfaction with the repair (sorry for the Star Trek reference - sometimes I can't help myself ;-).

I'm no artist but I can imagine that painter also feels his paint, the colours and textures as they merge with the canvas and unveil the masterpiece. The great sculptor Michelagelo said of his work, "I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free"; he also said "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it". From these quotes, it seems that Michelangelo's mastery was delivered more through feel than through technical skill. 

It is this feeling for the things that we are passionate about that I believe we have to be aware of and, more importantly, to cultivate  as they start to emerge in our lives. In his book 'Fame, Fortune and Ambition - What is the meaning of success?' Osho says "Love, sing dance - not as a competitor but as one who wants to share his joy, his songs, his dances with his fellow human beings. (Share) Whatever you have - and every human being has something unique to contribute to the world.".

There are times in our lives when we switch from phase to phase. As our children are becoming productive members of society (i.e. off the family payroll ;-), it allows me to restore time towards personal goals, I am entering the phase where I am questioning what I should be focusing on next. Blogging is one of those things and music is another but neither of these is the end-game; that still eludes me but I am catching glimpses of it. What I do know, is that it will come to me as a "feeling" of what makes me happy and fulfills me as I work on it.